Tom Plick's Course Project

My project is a four-legged robot. Each leg is moved by a joint similar to the windshield-wiper mechanism that Dr. Regli presented in the first (?) week of class.

My robot is somewhat reminiscent of a daddy longlegs with only four legs. My original intent was for the robot to walk like a cat, having three legs on the ground at a time; but in its current configuration, that made it just shuffle back and forth. So, I put little rubber feet on the front legs, and they make the robot drag itself forward. I may change that....

Unlike everyone else in the class, I am using K'nex to build my robot. I have more experience with them and I own a bunch of them already, so this appealed to me more than using Legos. K'nex makes battery-powered motors that one can slip on a rod and have it turn like an axle; currently I am powering the robot with a hand crank. Fortunately, my design doesn't seem to need a lot of torque, so I am fairly confident that the electric motor will drive my beast just as well as my index finger has.

Here are some pictures of the robot:

Week 2

- I made the legs shorter; the robot was liable to fall down, because I was using gray rods that are all bent from a model I made years ago.

Week 3

I had another idea for a robot, and I built this one during the Eagles game on Sunday. (Note to self: it was the one against New Orleans)

I also received my K'nex motors in the mail and put them onto each robot. The second one walks MUCH better than the first. I also managed to build it without any gears, which really helped since I only own four gears, it seems.